Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys!

Thank you so much for your tips and advice! So far it seems to be working

I decluttered the cage, removed almost everything leaving only his new hide/basking spot that i made, 1 cool side hide, and two small peices of driftwood that are now laying horizontally. I had to add another bulb to get the desired brightness and heat but i will have to change that around shortly again when his mega ray arrives.

Today his temps were up at 120degreesF and when i came home from work he had eaten his veggies!!!! He also came out for a few minutes (until he saw me and ran away ).

I made his new hide out of some slate and rock peices...I gave him a two-in-one hide that has two tight fitting hiding spaces as well as a flat hot surface to bask on. So far he loves it and is hanging out underneath! Check it out....if you look really closely you can see him

Thanks again, i will continue to keep you updated as well as ask more questions as they arrise! I feel so much better now - its great

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0.1 Bearded dragon (Hannabil)
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake (Morticia)
2.1 Leopard Gecko's (Pogo,Jeffrey Nothing, Louise)
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn (Autumn)
1.0 Blood Red Corn (Virus)
0.0.1 Mali Uromastyx (Scuttle)
0.1 Bullmastiff (Asha)
4.1 Cats (Poe, Tucker, Abhid, Felicity, Emmy)

Things are looking better all the time! One further suggestion, though... The low hide is still too high & narrow. Offer a much wider rock that he actually has to squeeze underneath & can feel completely isolated from the outside world.

you are more than welcome- i myself had many questions
I even called Doug Dix without knowing him or ever buying from him when i could not find answers(thank you sir!). And i even got thrown out of Petsmart when the idiot manager told me he was keeping a suffering mali "by all guidelines" and I became angry with the way he was talking to me- i was already angry about the mali- i told him i was not buying what i came for or anything ever again, and he refused to put the fixture and bulb back and told me to put it back-so i dropped them on the floor. I am now banned- as if i really care. the point is- i am more than happy to help someone who asks. I am glad things have improved. Please silicone that slate hide together and you can stuff it with sand to make it seem more like home. Gotta go, my hungries are looking at me!

Ok, so i still have some work to do on making the perfect hide.

I added a little sand to the bottom of the hide he has now to make it a tigheter space for him but you mentioned it should be wider as well...

How wide? Would it be best to take an entire slate tile and add peices underneath to elevate it so he has the entire tile to hide under or would that be too big? I guess i made it smaller so he would feel more tight and secure...but is it just that they need to have a low ceiling but lots of horiztonal space?

sorry for this again, i guess i still don quite get it

Thanks
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0.1 Bearded dragon (Hannabil)
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake (Morticia)
2.1 Leopard Gecko's (Pogo,Jeffrey Nothing, Louise)
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn (Autumn)
1.0 Blood Red Corn (Virus)
0.0.1 Mali Uromastyx (Scuttle)
0.1 Bullmastiff (Asha)
4.1 Cats (Poe, Tucker, Abhid, Felicity, Emmy)

If a burrow can't be provided (often hard to do!) then low & wide (or long) is preferable. We use pretty large (& thin )slabs purchased from landscaping supply outlets.
Main thing is, if your Uro is active, eating & basking, you're probably just fine. I wouldn't change things every time one of us goobers on the forum has a new suggestion.
Take care.

We had a similar experience at PetSmart. The "Reptile Care Expert" was highly offended when we opined that the diet of cabbage wasn't a good thing. That's ALL they were feeding a WC mali. Ever wonder how many THOUSANDS of Uros (not to mention all reptiles) are perishing each year to sustain the pet trade? Was it Pogo who said "We have met the enemy & it is us."?

this what happened- months before, the wife takes Face(bull terrier R.I.P. ) to get some dog food and sees the mali- says something and gets the defensive routine. They get rude, now Face loves us and gets very upset when someone doesn't act right around us so the conversation ended there. Months later- here i am to spend approximately $27 or so- i see the mali (or another) freezing arching its back almost in a fetal position. there was a bowl of green water and the only food-no bowl- is red sand substrate COATED super worms that were also dying- but those are the guidelines. And seriously he treated me like i was nuts.

Unforunately that type of event is "normal" for the big chain petstores. It really is a shame...they dont care how many animals are killed as long as they make a dollar. But even more than that, what upsets me the most is all the people who buy a reptile (or any other animal) from them and follows the pet store employees advice with good intention and then kills their animal - and is put off the reptile (or other animal) keeping hobby. Or maybe even worse - it doesnt die and goes on to suffer while the keeper thinks its doing everything "right"

*sigh*

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0.1 Bearded dragon (Hannabil)
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake (Morticia)
2.1 Leopard Gecko's (Pogo,Jeffrey Nothing, Louise)
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn (Autumn)
1.0 Blood Red Corn (Virus)
0.0.1 Mali Uromastyx (Scuttle)
0.1 Bullmastiff (Asha)
4.1 Cats (Poe, Tucker, Abhid, Felicity, Emmy)

those are just terrible employees. I used to work for petsmart and they give us very good guidelines as to feeding the reptiles and how to care for them. Of course, I didn't agree with everything (I thought the temps could be a little hotter than 120f for the basking spot), but if the employees apply everything they are told, the environment created for each specific species of reptile should be more than adequate.

But that's only if people do as they're told, and in my experience there it's difficult to get people to do so for only $7.50 an hour. That's the main reason that I choose not to work there anymore.

That and the reptiles are of poor quality. Even though they attest that everything is supposed to be captive bred, we would get shipments from importers of half-dead reptiles that we had to bring back (with a pretty good success rate).

But, yes, the care you saw was appalling, and it's typical of almost all 'pet shops'. The worst reptilian care I've ever seen was at a ma and pop pet store. There is nothing regulating how they care for their animals.